The Week

News

Last Friday night after a champagne gala the Berkeley Black Repertory Group premiered its "In Search of a Legend: A Tribute to Josephine Baker." Written and conceived by Johnny Land, directed and choreographed by Stephen Semien this musical revue exuberantly hits the highlights of Josephine’s life. Unfortunately, with an uneven cast and a thin script, this show never attains the heights of tribute it wishes to convey.
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The Berkeley Federation of Teachers and the Berkeley Unified School District are locked in a battle over the move from a seven- to a six-period day at Berkeley High School, a shift approved by the Board of Education in February and scheduled to take place next year.
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WASHINGTON - Male frogs exposed to even very low doses of a common weed killer can develop multiple sex organs — sometimes both male and female — researchers at the University of California Berkeley have discovered.
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East Los Angeles, the famed rough-and-tumble Mexican neighborhood, has been a continuing source of inspiration to one of its native sons, Luis Rodriguez, bringing out poetry, political commentary, a memoir and now short fiction.
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The list of prospective challengers to Shirley Dean’s mayoral seat in this November’s election has diminished with the announcements by several potential candidates that they will not run against the two-term incumbent. Members of the progressive voting block of the city council, determined to unseat Dean, have seen their list of challengers shrink, and have responded to their lack of a candidate by organizing a convention for May 4 to determine who will run against the mayor.
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Monday, April 15

The St. Mary’s High track & field program should be a contender for state honors this season, for both individual events and team score. So last weekend’s Arcadia Invitational, the first meet to host most of the state’s best teams, could be looked at as a preview of what’s to come for the Panthers.
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Led by a complete game from sophomore Matt Brown and home runs by Ben Conley and Justin Nelson, the Cal baseball team defeated visiting Arizona, 2-1, Sunday at Evans Diamond. The Bears improved to 23-18 overall and 6-6 in the Pac-10, while Arizona dropped to 24-15 and 5-7 in the conference. The Wildcats had won the first two game of the series, 8-4 on Friday and 18-9 Saturday.
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The daily filler titled "News of the Weird" represents at best a misjudgment of what will earn the respect and readership of Berkeley, but what's in it (Thursday, April 11th) is seriously offensive.
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LEWISTON, Idaho – The tribes along the route of Lewis and Clark’s expedition to the Pacific Ocean 200 years ago want the upcoming commemoration to be accurate, considerate and develop relationships that will last.
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SAN JOSE – In a state that touts itself as a national model in resources in legal protections for death penalty defendants, seven death sentences are set aside for every one carried out, according to a newspaper’s review.
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Attorneys for Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney questioned witnesses in the opening week of their case against the FBI and Oakland Police, hoping to establish a timeline of events in the case.
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A tool used by historians to trace the history of a city is a special map, called a Sanborn Insurance Map. The maps were published for insurance agents to assess the risks of insuring a particular piece of property and were first published in 1867.
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A letter printed in yesterday’s edition regarding the League of Women Voters was written by Zelda Bronstein, the Chair of the Planning Commission. Below her name the Hearst-Curtis Neighborhood Association was placed inadvertantly. It has come to our attention that Bronstein has no affiliation with the Hearst-Curtis Neighborhood Association. The Daily Planet apologizes for the mistake.
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Scrapbooks, stories, videos, food and memories will be shared next Saturday at the Harmon House Reunion as the members of one of Berkeley’s eclectic communal houses say good-bye to their former South Berkeley residence. The house, a communal living space in Berkeley for working adults, students and graduate students since 1978, has been sold and will be renovated later this year.
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When the 45th San Francisco International Film Festival comes to the Pacific Film Archive on Friday, April 19, the “international” of the title proves itself. For two weeks the PFA will screen 34 films and 15 shorts from all points of the globe – from Berkeley to France to Senegal to Israel to China, and ports in between.
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LOS ANGELES — Two Greenpeace activists were sentenced to a year’s probation Friday for taking part in a protest intended to stop the launch of an unarmed test missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base last year.
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SACRAMENTO — Authorities arrested a former employee and three others Friday who allegedly stole $1.3 million from the state Employment Development Department by issuing and cashing fraudulent disability insurance checks.
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SAN FRANCISCO — The woman convicted of second-degree murder in the dog mauling death of her neighbor has a new set of defense attorneys and a chance to convince a San Francisco judge she deserves a new trial.
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SACRAMENTO — Sheriff’s and FBI officials here are investigating a possible hate crime after a Jewish man said he was beaten by two attackers, one who claimed to support Palestine, officials said.
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SAN JOSE, Calif. — It’s the talk of Silicon Valley: How did someone break into the voice mail of Hewlett-Packard Co.’s chief financial officer, snag a sensitive message from his boss, Carly Fiorina, and leak it to the local newspaper?
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NEW YORK — The New York premiere of “Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones,” will raise money for the city’s underprivileged kids and children of the victims of Sept. 11, festival organizers said Wednesday.
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When Berkeley resident Rob Lipton answered his cell phone on April 1, the voice on the other end made him feel a helplessness known to so many of the Palestinian refugees with whom he was staying
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The San Francisco Film Society has announced that “Minute Matrimony”by Berkeley filmmaker Yoav Potash is the winner of a Golden Gate Award, given to recognize outstanding film production in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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PASADENA — AT&T Corp. is not renewing its contract as presenting sponsor of the annual Rose Bowl game, company spokesman John Heath said Thursday. The decision leaves the nation’s oldest bowl game without a major corporate backer.
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SAN FRANCISCO — Consumer advocates sued state power regulators in the California Supreme Court on Thursday in hopes of ensuring the public has a say in how much utilities charge for power and gas.
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A truly ripe peach is one that makes you jut your head forward with each bite to keep yourself from being showered with juice. You rarely can buy such a fruit, but you can grow it. Get it off to a good start with correct planting.
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A typical start by St. Mary’s High’s Joe Storno involves lots of baserunners, lots of pitches and plenty of nail-biting. Luckily for the Panthers, Storno’s outing against Salesian on Wednesday was anything but typical.
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Honks from passing cars joined the sounds of whistles, banging pie pans and chants of “What’s outrageous? Unfair wages!” at a noontime rally organized by the Coalition of University Employees in front of the UC Berkeley Extension School on Wednesday.
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Armed with a plastic take-apart human model, oncology nurse Bev Hart-Inkster set about teaching patients and their loved ones how to cope with cancer on Wednesday night. It was the first class in a free, eight-class program, developed by the American Cancer Society, that will take place at the Alta Bates Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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After months of negotiating with Local 2850 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, the Claremont Spa is lashing out, alleging that the union has deliberately stalled negotiations.
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OAKLAND — Two very different views of what happened after Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were injured in a 1990 car bombing have emerged as lawyers laid out their case for federal jurors this week.
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LOS ANGELES — Anti-Semitic incidents declined sharply across the United States in 2001, the Anti-Defamation League said Wednesday as it released a report covering 40 states and the District of Columbia.
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The Berkeley Rent Board receives more than 300 inquiries a week ranging from very specific questions about individual units, to broader questions about rent control in general. In this column we will reproduce some of the more interesting questions and answers. Our topics will include permissible rent ceilings, the effects of vacancy decontrol, permissible grounds for eviction, habitability of units, the rules concerning security deposits and other issues of interest to renters and property owners. You can e-mail the City of Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board at rent@ci. berkeley.ca.us with your questions, or you can call or visit the office at 2125 Milvia Street, Berkeley, CA. 94704 (northeast corner of Milvia/Center Streets) Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, between 9 a.m. and 4:45 p.m., and on Wednesday between noon and 4:45 p.m. Our telephone number is (510) 644-6128. Our Web site address is www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent/.
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SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco district attorney has sent a letter to the head of the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco asking for any information on sexual abuse by clergy members or church employees in the past 75 years.
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SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gray Davis announced his opposition Wednesday to a hotly debated bill that would allow teachers to bring curriculum choices and textbook selection to the collective bargaining table.
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SANTA ROSA — A judge delayed closing arguments Wednesday in the trial of a priest accused of rape and lewd conduct so she could question jurors about their knowledge of an incident in which the priest allegedly assaulted a newspaper photographer.
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SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas and Electric Co. electric bills may drop a bit this summer after state power regulators voted to increase “baseline” allotments — the amount of electricity California households receive at the lowest electric rate.
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UC Berkeley police arrested 79 pro-Palestinian activists Tuesday afternoon, capping a day of protests against Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and University of California investment in Israel.
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NEW YORK - Natalie Coughlin, a 19-year-old sophomore swimmer at Cal, was one of five finalists for the 72nd Annual AAU James E. Sullivan Memorial Award that recognizes the top amateur athlete in the nation. The award was presented to skating’s Michelle Kwan at the ceremony at the award’s new presentation site, The New York Athletic Club, Tuesday night in New York City.
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The number of hate crimes occurring in Berkeley is appalling and deeply disturbing. Today, a member of my staff heard the hate and threats left on the answering machine of a prominent local rabbi. Last Thursday, two clearly identifiable Orthodox Jews were severely beaten, anti-Semitic graffiti was sprayed on trash cans, and a brick was thrown through a window of Hillel House.
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Wednesday, April 10

Peter Miguel Camejo, Green Party candidate for governor, will attempt to distinguish himself from Democrat Gov. Gray Davis and Republican Bill Simon tonight at 7 p.m. at an event sponsored by the UC Berkeley Campus Greens.
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The Berkeley boys’ volleyball team got a good look at league power El Cerrito on Tuesday, and it wasn’t particularly pleasant for the ’Jackets. El Cerrito pounded them early and often, winning 15-1, 15-4, 15-7.
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The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated two cottages on the American Baptist Seminary of the West as “structures of merit” Tuesday, effectively entangling the city in a potential lawsuit.
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LOS ANGELES — A physicist who served as chief scientist for NASA was appointed chancellor of the University of California at Riverside on Monday, becoming the second Hispanic to head a campus in the system’s 134-year history.
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Lisa Bari, daughter of the late Judi Bari, spoke at a press conference after day two of the Earth First! trial against the FBI. “We all hope this is going to work and this is going to clear my mother’s name,” said Bari, 21, who just graduated from UC Berkeley in December 2001.
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SAN JOSE — A judge in Delaware has left open the possibility that dissident Hewlett-Packard Co. director Walter Hewlett still can torpedo the company’s $19 billion acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp.
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A recent article about budget problems in the city of Oakland noted that Oakland city council members “resented” the fact that they were being asked to make decisions regarding which programs to cut, and which to save. Let’s hope the Berkeley city council doesn’t feel that way about making tough decisions, since substantial budget cuts are on the horizon
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